The Russian version of this page

Our congratulations to Pierre Deligne, who shared with Ph.Griffiths and D.Mumford
the 2008 Wolf Foundation Prize!

List of winners of the 2005 competition
List of winners of the 2006 competition
List of winners of the 2007 competition
List of winners of the 2008 competition
List of winners of the 2009 competition

Pierre Deligne contest

In 2009 the Pierre Deligne contest was conducted for the last time.

The 2007-2009 laureates will continue to receive their stipends in accordance with the existing rules.

Russian mathematicians are deeply grateful to Pierre Deligne for his generous support of the Russian mathematical school.

The exellent initiative of Pierre Deligne was taken over by Dmitri Zimin's "Dynasty" foundation.

Preamble

Pierre Deligne Contest is a competition of young mathematicians of Russia, Ukraine and Byelorussia. The contest winner was awarded a three-year research grant. The aim of the contest was to help young mathematicians to carry out scientific research staying in their home countries.

A few words about the origin of the contest. In 2004 Pierre Deligne (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ) was awarded the Balzan Prize. This prize is awarded by Balzan Foundation for outstanding achievements in various domains of science and public service. Previously the Balzan Prize winners for mathematics were A.N.Kolmogorov, E.Bombieri, J.-P.Serre, A.Borel, M.Gromov and others. The rules of the Balzan Prize require that half of the sum would be spent for some project plausibly addressed to the support of young researchers. Pierre Deligne has chosen to support "struggling Russian mathematics". His proposal was accepted by the Balzan Foundation. See also the text of Pierre Deligne's speech (in French) at the Balzan Prize ceremony held in Rome on November 18, 2004.

Aims of the contest

The Pierre Deligne Contest was established in 2005 to support the most active young mathematicians working in Russia, Ukraine and Byelorussia.

Eligibility

Any person not older than 35 (more precisely, who gets no more than 35 at the year of the application) who has a PhD in mathematics and lives in any of the countries: Russia, Ukraine, Byelorussia, was eligible for the competition.

Contest

The competitors provided a research statement accompanied by other documents. The Jury sent the whole package to appropriate reviewers.

The winners of the competition were chosen by the Jury. The choice was based on a discussion of the proposal by the Jury, based in turn on the peer reviews collected.

The winners were awarded diplomas of the Pierre Deligne contest and three-year scholarship of 15000 Russian roubles per month. The scholarships were paid quarterly, except for the months when the winner spent most of the time abroad (i.e. outside of the former Soviet Union). If the winner spent more than 8 months during a year outside of the FSU then grants were paid forfeit part of the fellowship amount, prorata temporis (in this case it did not matter which months the winner spended abroad).

At the end of each year each grantee must present an annual report with a summary of achievements for the past year and of plans for the forthcoming year. The normal procedure was that the Jury accepted the report and took a decision about the continuation of the grant. At the end of the grant period, a final report must be presented.

All the papers submitted by the grantee during the grant period should have a reference that it was partly funded by P.Deligne's 2004 Balzan prize in Mathematics.

It was originally planned that funds of the Balzan Prize awarded to Pierre Deligne in 2004 would be used to finance 16 stipends in 2005 - 2008.

These stipends were awarded and - taking into account future payments - the fund of 2004 expired. Nevertheless, Pierre Deligne has generously decided to prolong the contest for 2009 using his personal resource (the second half of the Balzan Prize).

Two stipends were awarded in 2009.

The Jury

The Jury for the Pierre Deligne Contest was chosen specially for this contest and was independent from any university or other institution.

The Jury consisted of two Co-Chairmen, two Vice-Chairmen, two scientific secretaries and numerous experts.

The Jury members